Out with the New and in with the Old
by eightbitGuitarist
Summary: When marriages fall apart, old friendships rekindle. Four years apart, and Maka has found herself back in the old apartment, back with Soul. Through heart ache and hurt, can Soul bring back the old Maka?
1. Baggage

**Chapter One – **_**Baggage**_

"I-I hate you!" My voice broke – I couldn't stand it. My weakness. My vulnerability. I closed my eyes, the image of my husband of two years on top of my best friend, in _our _bedroom, ingrained into my eyelids and memory dutifully. As if it's job were to torture me with the images I had encountered when coming home early from a mission.

"Maka, p-please! I'm sorry! Maka?" I could hear his feet shuffling across the carpet of our home. _No,_ my mind spewed bitterly. _It's only his home now. _

"Damn it, Kid, you told me you love m– Ugh! You're just like my father! I _knew_ this would happen!" I glared at him and wrestled with something on my hand before throwing it at him – a diamond ring and a wedding band engraved with three words. "'Against the odds', my ass," I snarled. "Men are all the same!"

He looked hurt; it didn't faze me. If anything, it made me feel a bit smug. "Maka, baby, please don't do this to me."

I stared at him, outraged. "Don't do this to _you_? Why don't you _do_ the girl lying in _our_ bed, in _our_ room, in _our _house? Gah, I hate you!" I didn't care how loud I was yelling – the pain in my throat wasn't quite distracting me from the pain of the constriction in my chest, so I tried a new approach.

"I never want to see, or speak to you again, Death the Kid." My voice was soft and calm, with no venom. Only finality. I looked up at him and knew exactly what my eyes held, because they held what my heart did: the ache of broken promises, broken vows, the air brushing my ring finger where I would have preferred it's suffocation, the image of a wedding band and glorious diamond ring laying defeated on the hardwood floor, the sound of Elizabeth Thompson's pleasure, tears hitting hardwood like shattered glass, and the premonition of what I was about to do. "Never again." I felt a bitter satisfaction as his face fell despairingly. I didn't care that I was crying. I had every right to.

I didn't even look at Liz as I walked into the bedroom, grabbing a suitcase from the closet and stuffing clothes inside haphazardly as I tried to ignore the tears and the voices, all begging forgiveness.

"Oh, Maka, I'm so sorry!"

As Liz's pitiful apology rang in my ears, I whipped around and looked her dead in the eyes. "You are dead to me."

Liz's eyes widened in fear and surprise, and even Kid shut up for a moment. I had never been known for being mean. Feisty, yes. Irritable, yes. A scythe meister, yes. And a good one at that. But never had I spoken words dripping with such venom, teeth bared and all traces of whimpering wife, gone. There was only cold, blind fury. I now was a cobra, and fuckitall, I was going to strike one of these times. I took a deep breath and finished packing my things, tearing the pendant that Liz had given me off my neck, breaking the chain and throwing it at her without looking up. I shoved past Kid easily – he was a good head taller than me, but was still shocked from my ever-so-quiet outbreak. I was out the door before I knew it, walking through the rain. My feet found their way to Tsubaki's home and I knocked a few times. I waited, then was about to turn and leave when the door opened to Black Star.

The blue-haired boy had grown into a tall and muscled man, very handsome really, but he was too much like a brother for me to ever be attracted to him like that. Besides, he was married to one of my best friends.

"WHO DARES INTERRUPT THIS GOD'S TIME WITH HIS BEAUTIFUL WI – Whoa, Maka! Are you alright? You're soaking wet – come in! Seriously! I'll have Tsubaki make you some tea. TSUBAKI, BABE, C'MERE!"

The black-haired woman came bounding downstairs, obviously having heard pieces of Black Star's 'welcome' and wondering why I was at her doorstep, sopping wet with rain. The second she pushed Black Star out of the way gently, she sucked in a breath – I was quite a sight. Smeared make-up, puffy eyes, red cheeks, soaked to the bone in my mission clothes, and a suitcase clutched in white-knuckled fingers.

"Maka, honey, wh-" That was all she got out before shaking her head and rushing forward to wrap me in a hug. A sob shuddered out of me and I dropped the baggage – though only the literal form of, unfortunately – hugging her back.

I explained everything to her through my tears, which I'm sure, confused both of them until I got to the part where I walked in the bedroom, because I _never_ cried. When I finished, Black Star had a face of blind fury I could only assume I had looked like when yelling at Liz, and even Tsubaki looked furious.

I took a deep breath. "I wanted to come to you first, b-but… I need to see someone else. I don't know why, but… I _need_ to see him."

Tsubaki looked like she almost had an idea, but I looked up at Black Star, and we shared a knowing gaze. "He still loves you."

I took a deep breath.

"I hoped so."

Ten minutes later, I was on my way, trusting my feet to lead me where my memory had banished in anger and frustration. I walked mindlessly, not caring about the pouring rain and rolling thunder, just wanting to reach my frustration.

When I came up to the door, I hesitated, wondering if this was the best idea. Finally pushing away my fears, I knocked on the ever so familiar door, one I had never had to ask entrance for. I could heard a grunt, then the shuffle of feet, and saw a flash of white through the peep-hole. Then another flash of white, and another wait before the lock clicked and the door swung inwards to reveal a disheveled, shocked, and slack-jawed Soul Eater Evans.

"M-Maka?"

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**WHOA HO HO. WHOA. WHOA. Yeah. I don't know. I started writing a drabble in my notebook, which ended up becoming a structured story. So.. Yeah. Happy birthday. Yippeeeeeee. Review pleaaaassee! OR I'LL NEVER WRITE AGAIN. AND I'LL TAKE ALL YER FANFICS FOREVER. Rawr. Now go review:D**

**Love you guys!**


	2. Old Apartment

**Ohtee, so xXRedPokerGirlxX made a VERY good point in the fact that no, Kid really isn't the cheating type. Sorreh. Just gonna shove a little OOC in there for Kiddo… But thanks for reviewing, people! You have no IDEA how happy it makes me inside to get all these amazing reviews. **

**Oh, and in return, what do you guys want to happen? Fuel me with ideas! Review with some things you might want to see happen later in the story, because I feel like this may be a long one. Lemons, maybe? Please sate the review-whore and give my odd and citrus-filled mind a line of sights for what you guys want. Thanks!**

**Love you!**

**Audio.**

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**Chapter Two – _Old Apartment_**_**  
**_

It had been at least four years. Maka and I had fought, and things hadn't gotten better. When the girl said she never wanted to see you again, she took it seriously.

The last I'd heard, she'd been happily married to Kid at twenty-two. Hearing that tore my chest open, causing old wounds to fester and reminding me that the blonde-haired beauty I had loved since we were thirteen, just didn't feel for me the same way. That was two years ago.

And yet, here she was, standing on the front porch of our old place – I was honestly surprised she remembered the way – and looking beautiful as ever, despite her crestfallen expression and soaking-wet body. I had to do a double-take through the peep-hole to make sure it was really her out there.

Maka had changed: taller (though she was still much shorter than me, eye level with my chest), she had grown into a bombshell body, well-endowed and curvy. A woman to envy. Her body may have come late, but… Now Blair seemed like the tiny-tits. Her skin was still flawless, alabaster and perfection, accenting her rosy lips and moss-green eyes. She was even more beautiful than I had imagined her, but I could see one flaw in her otherwise gorgeous self – her sorrow. She was breaking down.

"M-maka?"

Her eyes widened and she dove into me. "Oh, Soul!" her voice broke, and she wrapped her arms around my neck tightly, sobbing into my chest, drenching the front of my shirt in just a few moments with her tears and the rest of me with her rain-water soaked body. And fuckitall, I didn't care one single bit. Maybe it was a bit uncool, but it was _so _cool to have Maka back in my arms, that it overruled everything else for that moment.

"Hey, hey. Shhh, come on inside. I'll make you some coffee, and I'll get you a change of clothes before you get sick, alright? Come on in." I ushered her inside gently and led her to my bedroom, grabbing a pair of gray sweat pants and a black t-shirt. "Here. These'll be a bit big, but they're better than your wet clothes. Which you can just set on the bed, by the way. I'll throw them in the washer for you later. Come out into the living room when you're all good." I handed her a towel as well before wrapping her in one more hug, which she gladly accepted. I pulled away with shameless reluctance and went to the kitchen to make some coffee, shutting the door behind me. I was just pouring two tall mugs of the beverage when I heard the door creak open, and saw Maka step out.

She looked incredibly sexy in my clothes, which made me quite smug. Her hair had dried a bit and she had brushed it, letting its length tumble gently around to small shoulders. She had tied the shirt back so that it hugged her hips, looser as it raised, the neck and shoulders baggy on her tiny frame. The sweats hung off one hip, exposing a thin strip of blue elastic, trimmed with lace. I smiled softly at her and she returned it – Death, it was amazing to see those full, sad lips turn up for once.

"You want anything in your coffee?"

She shook her head. "I drink black." I nodded and added a bit of milk to my own before walking over and handing Maka her mug, sitting beside her on the couch. It was nice to be back beside her, on the same couch they used to share. A little melancholy, sure, but nice all the same.

"So," I started, gazing over at her with eyes of concern. "What brings you here? To the home of your ex-weapon that you so desperately hate?" I hadn't realized the words that came out of my mouth until Maka let out a bitter laugh. My words hadn't had an ounce of venom – just loneliness, I guess. Confusion. Hurt. So not cool.

Taking a deep breath, Maka looked everywhere but at me, gazing at the interior of the apartment as she indirectly answered my question. "Y'know, four years ago, you made a mistake." I nodded, wondering where she was going with this. "And I left you – entirely. I had made countless mistakes and you stood loyally by my side. Then you made a mistake – a big one, yes, but still only a mistake – and I betrayed you. Left you to your own devices. And then," she laughed coldly once more, in a grim and dark sense of humour. "I show up at your doorstep after four – _four_ –fucking years and you let me in without a s-s… Without a sec-c…" Her voice broke and a rouge tear rolled down her cheek, which she wiped away roughly before I could even reach out. "You just let me in without a second thought. Like I never _abandoned_ you. I can't tell if you or I am the stupid one." She sniffed, finally looking me in the eye.

I reached for her hand and entwined our fingers with a deep sigh. "Maka. I was always the stupid one. It was just… When you didn't reply, I thought it meant you just didn't love me back. And I was angry, and hurt, and confused. So, I guess bringing home a random girl was the best I could do to try and get my mind off of it. But that all backfired. I hadn't even meant for you to know – it was just supposed to get you off my mind, I assumed you would be gone. But I assumed wrong and I'm sure I looked just like your good-for-nothing Papa in that moment. And now, by the way you're mentioning our separation, I'm going to assume something of that sort happened with Kid?"

Maka exhaled a breath she must have been holding the whole time I was speaking before recounting every bitter detail in the most civilized manner possible. I was surprised she was so under control. When she finished, I rubbed small circles on the back of her hand with my thumb, fingers still loosely twisted together. "You can stay here, if you'd like. I'll sleep on the couch until we can get another bed." I silenced her with a look as she opened her mouth to protest, and she gave in.

"Alright…. Thank you, Soul."

I nodded and we were silent, watching television for awhile until I realized she had fallen asleep on the couch. I smiled softly at the peaceful expression on her face, a nice change from the hurt and melancholy twist it had when she was awake.

Lifting her bridal style, I grabbed her suitcase as well and tucked her into my bed, setting the case at the foot of the queen-sized mattress. Planting a soft kiss on her forehead, I was leaving, but paused in the doorway to look back at her. Pale, milky moonlight filtered through my open windows, tinting her blue and accentuating her gorgeous, sleeping form.

"Goodnight, Maka. I love you," I murmured softly with a slight smile as I pulled the door shut behind me.


End file.
